Download the App

We’re not saying it’s aliens… but it could be aliens (5 Photos)

The intriguing saga of Star KIC 8462852 AKA the ‘Alien Megastructure Star‘ continues. For a little background: In October 2015, researchers found that the star’s brightness mysteriously dips by up to 22% every 750 Earth days indicating that something very large is orbiting the star. For comparison, a Jupiter-sized planet would cause only a 1% dip in brightness.

2

So far nobody can figure out why, as evidence has been found to refute every hypothesis put forth. It was initially believed that a swarm of comets had been blocking out the light of star, but now that theory has been become doubtful as well.

3

By digging through Harvard University’s archive, Bradley Schaefer, a professor of Physics and Astronomy at Louisiana State University found that between 1890 and 1989 the star had been photographed 1,200 times. By analyzing the photographs he discovered that in addition to the periodic dimming, the star has lost 20 percent of its brightness over the last hundred years.

Schaefer estimates it would require 648,000 comets, each 200 kilometers wide to block out that much light which is impossibly improbable. “The comet-family idea was reasonably put forth as the best of the proposals, even while acknowledging that they all were a poor lot. But now we have a refutation of the idea, and indeed, of all published ideas,” he says.

4

Could it be aliens? The Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama and the Allen Telescope Array in California both surveyed KIC 8462852 and found no alien radio signals coming from it. If it is aliens, they have found a way to hide themselves.

5

GIF

Only one thing is for sure, we need to continue observing the star and collecting data. The truth is out there.

Engage

Are we still friends?

We can see you're using Adblocker. Block everybody else, but we thought we were friends. Please click Yes below to whitelist us, so we can keep doing our best to show you half-naked ladies and funny Internet memes. It's what any friend would do.